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"To my colleagues at CNN both in front of and behind the cameras. Without your collective efforts, this book would not have been possible. We truly did go “all in” to cover this story. And we will continue to do so, wherever it goes."A large commercial airliner going missing without a trace for so long is unprecedented in modern aviation. It must not happen again.— Tony Tyler, director general, IATAWhere’s that plane?” If there is one question I get asked most these days, this is it. From politicians and CEOs to doormen and cabdrivers, time and again they want to know, “What happened to that plane? Where is it?” Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 — with 239 people aboard — departed from Kuala Lumpur shortly after midnight on March 8, 2014, bound for Beijing, China, and has never been seen since. Despite the largest aviation search in history, virtually nothing was found of the aircraft in the wake of its disappearance. Sixteen months later, thousands of miles from the flight’s path, a piece of an airplane’s wing washed ashore on Reunion Island. Still, this bit of evidence and a flimsy trail of electronic satellite data are all we have to go on—plus a huge amount of speculation and confusion.“The most difficult search ever undertaken in human history.”When Australia’s prime minister Tony Abbott uttered those words in April 2014, it was not just the usual hyperbole of a politician. What happened to MH370 has been described as a unique, unprecedented, and extraordinary mystery. Planes may crash, but they are not supposed to disappear without a trace. Earlier ocean crashes, such as Air France 447 or Air India 182, have demonstrated that wreckages can typically be located within hours. Airlines today own the most modern aircraft, featuring up-to-date navigation technology, while regulations govern everything from the number of hours a pilot can fly to the fire-resistant fabric used in the passenger seats. Despite the precautions, no one has been able to pinpoint the final resting place of MH370 and those on board. All the while we know that if you lose your iPhone, it can be traced within minutes.At the heart of this mystery remains the question of the cause of the plane’s disappearance. Was it mechanical, or was it criminal: Did someone deliberately take over the aircraft and set it on a course to the south Indian Ocean, intending to kill all on board? Would that someone turn out to be an unknown hijacker or terrorist, or could it have been one of the pilots?Do I have a view of what might have happened? I do, and I will share it. In doing so, I am not blind to the obvious options, but prefer to keep an open mind on the eventual outcome. As will become clear in the chapters that follow, as a television journalist, I became frustrated, and even angry, with some of the pundits with whom I had to work who were quite prepared to convict the pilots long before any evidence had been found. Instead, this book will stick to the facts as we know them. In the end, you will be left to make up your own mind about where you think the evidence leads.The disappearance of MH370 has been a serious failure for the multibillion-dollar aviation industry, revealing disturbing facts and behaviors. That one of the most advanced aircraft in the world should vanish, while an airline left hundreds of desperate families waiting for news of their loved ones, is unpardonable. In response, airlines have rewritten their rules from top to bottom. An alphabet soup of international organizations responsible for air travel safety held high-level meetings and set up a task force to look at ways to ensure that planes are always being tracked in real time. Even CEOs I spoke to were as astounded as the general public that planes were not always being tracked to a fine point of precision. Some of the changes did not come soon enough: as suspicion about MH370’s pilots increased, discussions were held about a “two-person in the cockpit” rule, stipulating that if one pilot temporarily leaves the cockpit, he or she should be replaced by a flight attendant. Yet the considerable amount of talk led to very little action. If such a change had been made, the crashing of Germanwings 9525, in which a rogue pilot deliberately flew his airliner into a mountain, possibly would not have happened.When all is said and done, MH370 boils down to one simple fact. For the first time since the Wright brothers first flew, this industry, which prided itself on a policy of “safety first,” is having to cope with the unthinkable: a plane disappeared. It is no wonder the head of the airline organization IATA, Tony Tyler, decried, “A large commercial airliner going missing without a trace for so long is unprecedented in modern aviation. And it must not happen again.”The fascination with MH370 goes deeper than an aviation story.International diplomatic and political issues have been raised too. More than 60 percent of the passengers on board the plane were Chinese citizens, and the Chinese government wasted little time in flexing its muscles on their behalf. The relatives of Chinese victims were put up in a Beijing hotel where regular briefings were given by low-level Malaysian government and airline officials. These were acrimonious events, interrupted frequently by hysterical outbursts from distraught family members frustrated at the lack of information they were being given. The way the relatives were treated was shabby at best.Then there was the role of the Malaysian government itself. Were they a bunch of incompetents who had no idea what they were doing, doomed to make mistake after mistake? Or perhaps the truth was something more sinister: a cover-up for an erroneous military strike? Few people will deny that the first weeks of this crisis were not something of which the Malaysians can be proud. As the tensions rose across the South China Sea, the fate of MH370 rapidly became entwined in a diplomatic game of realpolitik, mystery, intrigue, and failure.As planes get bigger, and the ultra-long-haul flight becomes more common, the fact that MH370 happened is worrying, for it should never have happened.THE PLANE AND PASSENGERSAircraft Reg: 9M-MROAircraft Type: Boeing 777-200ERBuilt & Delivered: May 29, 2002 (11 years 9 months 9 days)Flight Hrs: 53,465Comms: 3 VHF radios, 2 HF radios, 1 SATCOM, 2 ATC transpondersSouls on Board: 239Crew: 12Pax: 227THE PILOTSThe Captain: Zaharie Ahmad Shah. Malaysian, age 53. Total flying hours: 18,365 hours. Experience on 777: 8,659 hours. Joined Malaysia Airlines in 1981.First Officer: Fariq Abdul Hamid. Malaysian, age 27. Total flying hours: 2,763. Experience on 777: 39 hours. Joined Malaysia Airlines in 2007.THE FLIGHTMH370, Kuala Lumpur to BeijingMARCH 8 (MALAYSIA STANDARD TIME)00:27 Push-back00:41 Takeoff00:42 Directed to Igari (waypoint)00:50 Directed to climb FL35000:50 Read-back FL35001:01 Advises reached FL35001:07 ACARS last transmission (provided total fuel remaining)01:07 Repeats FL35001:19 Handoff to Vietnam “Contact HCM 120.9 good night”01:19 Read-back “Good night Malaysian 370” LAST WORDSIn the case of the safety history of the 777, there was nothing to worry about. The 777, which first came into service in 1995, has an exemplary safety record. In almost twenty years, there had never been an accident where passengers had died in a plane crash. In 2013, Asiana 214 crash-landed in San Francisco. Two passengers died after they escaped from the aircraft and were run over by a fire truck responding to the accident. A third passenger died later in the hospital. The only other major 777 incident at the time of MH370 was the crash landing of the British Airways Flight 38 at London Heathrow. That came about because ice had formed in the fuel lines during a frigid flight from Beijing. When the ice jolted free, it blocked the line and starved the engines of fuel. The plane lost power and glided the last few miles to crash just short of the runway. Fortunately, everyone survived.Having seen the state of the crashed aircraft with both Asiana and British Airways, I find it a miracle that no one was killed when the planes hit the ground — a testament, I have no doubt, to Boeing’s ability to build superb airplanes (and the same is true for Airbus!). The 777 was, and still is, among the safest aircraft, and I had no hesitation in saying so on-air, then or now."We owe it to the grieving families, we owe it to everyone who travels by air, to get to the bottom of this mystery."—Tony Abbott, Australian prime ministerWell, he was voted out of power and that is that.In the following days, then weeks, months, and now years after MH370’s disappearance, Chris and all my other anchor colleagues have asked me the same question again and again. My answer has always been the same. “Yes, they will find it. They must.” As the time has gone by, sometimes I think I detect a certain wry smile on my colleagues’ faces as the words I uttered with such certitude come back to haunt me.So far I have been proved wrong, and with the exception of the single flaperon, nothing of the plane has been found. Some are now saying that the plane may never be found, that the task is too great. Assuming the Inmarsat data is correct, and the plane is lying along the seventh arc, the water is too deep, the ocean canyons too wide, the area too large. The search teams could be trolling right over the wreckage and never notice it.Of course we want to know what happened during those moments, on the morning of March 8, 2014, at 1:19, just after Captain Zaharie said, “Good night Malaysian 370.” But if we never discover the facts, there are plenty of other issues occasioned by the plane’s disappearance and it is these that must be resolved. There is the failure of air traffic control on that night, the confusion and political interference in the search operation, and the new methods of tracking planes and retrieving vital black-box data that are now being considered.Sixteen months after MH370 went missing, I was on assignment in Florida for CNN Business Traveller when I got the email. My producer Saskya Vandoorne wrote, “Twitter is abuzz with MH370 . . . probably a false lead but a wing has washed up near the Reunion Island.” She enclosed a picture of the object found in the western Indian Ocean. I was about ten miles from Legoland, where I was filming the next part of our show on theme parks. As I looked at the photo it was obvious that this was something significant. It was a part of a large aircraft wing, probably one of the flaps.Within hours, larger, better photos of the missing plane part had been published and we were comparing it to online schematics of the Boeing 777 wing. The pictures suggested that the piece was part of the control surfaces of the wing. Rather than the flaps, it appeared to be one of the plane’s two flaperons. A flaperon is a hybrid piece of equipment that combines the functions of the flaps and the ailerons, hence the name flaperon. The ailerons control the left and right banking of the aircraft by going up and down into the airflow, helping raise or lower the wing to make turns. The flaps extend on takeoff and landing and increase the wings’ size, giving the plane greater lift at slower speeds. The flaperons are part of a plane’s steering mechanism, and allow the pilot to bank the plane. At slower speeds they also extend marginally out of the wing in order to give greater stability and lift. As a passenger, you can see the flaperon in action if you sit behind the wing. It is on the trailing edge and is located nearer the fuselage. You will see it bouncing up and down on takeoff and landing as it stabilizes the aircraft, unlike the flaps, which extend in several sections then retract into the wing. The flaperon remains active throughout the flight (although at higher speeds it is far less noticeable).After some initial confusion over a number reportedly printed on the piece, it was confirmed as 657BB. It was described in the Boeing 777 maintenance manual as “flaperon Leading Edge Panel.”2 Another piece of debris was also recovered on the beach: the remnants of some sort of suitcase or backpack.While we waited for the aviation investigators to make a final determination on the source of the flaperon, I was being asked one vital question, hour after hour: Was it possible for a piece of debris from MH370 to have traveled 2,500 miles from the most likely crash site? It became obvious that the answer was, unequivocally, yes. If you look at a map, you’ll see that Reunion is on the opposite side of the Indian Ocean from Australia. It is a straight shot across the water from the most likely search zone to the coast of East Africa, where the island is located. Experts were put on-air reminding us that they had long predicted that the currents of the southern Indian Ocean Gyre, swirling around, creating a great sea garbage tank, would eventually cause the debris to drift across to the other side.In March 2014, the experts were telling us that eventually, something would be washed up on the western side of the Indian Ocean. It was all backed up by solid scientific evidence from the University of Western Australia, which showed us its drift-modeling forecast, which indicated that after eighteen months, wreckage would land in that region.If we were surprised by this development, our expert oceanographers were not.As the news of the find flashed around the world, it was particularly noted in Paris, where a new bureaucratic wrinkle was about to be added to the proceedings. Reunion has been under the control of France since the seventeenth century. It is now classed as an overseas territory and considered an administrative region, or prefecture, of France. Even though the French had played only a limited, advisory role in the MH370 investigation so far, the fact that the flaperon had washed up on French soil meant the French authorities took responsibility for handling the debris, which had to be transported to France for specialized examination. Thus, late on Friday, July 31, the flaperon was crated and boarded onto an Air France 777 flight bound for Paris. As I watched the video of the plane taking off I thought of the strange juxtaposition of one 777 carrying in its belly a vital part of another 777, taking it on a journey to release any secrets it had carried for the past sixteen months.As the piece was making its way to France, Boeing sources made it clear that yes, their experts recognized this as a flaperon from a 777 but they couldn’t say whether it was from 9M-MRO without further tests. This was backed up by comments from the Australian deputy prime minister, Warren Truss, who said the flaperon was a “major lead” and was “not inconsistent with a Boeing 777.”It was a very strange situation: everyone agreed that this was a 777 flaperon, but no one would say it’s the flaperon. Yet what else could it be? There were no other missing 777s in that part of the world. Though no 777 had reported losing a flaperon in flight — it’s the sort of thing a pilot would notice pretty quickly — everyone stopped short of weighing in definitively on the piece of debris. The French transferred the flaperon from Paris to Balma near Toulouse, and the headquarters of the Direction Générale de l’Armement (DGA). The DGA is part of the Ministry of Defense and is a specialist laboratory and testing center for the military and civilian aerospace industry. In many ways it was the perfect place to send the flaperon, as the DGA did much of the work on the wreckage of Air France 447, which had been in the water for years. This gave them expertise in analyzing pieces exactly like this one.The judicial authorities in France were now calling the shots because four of the passengers on board MH370 were French citizens. With a hijacking or other criminal act looming as a possibility, under French law the judicial authorities were given primacy to inquire into what had happened. The inspection of the flaperon was to be conducted under the control nd presence of three French judges carrying out their legal mandate. Inevitably a bureaucratic circus ensued. In Paris, meetings had been held between the French and Malaysian governments to determine how to handle this development. In Toulouse, there were representatives from the BEA, NTSB, the Malaysian DCA, Malaysia Airlines, the Australian ATSB, the Chinese, Boeing—it seemed everyone had to be there to make sure proper protocol was followed during the inspection of the flaperon. Its analysis didn’t begin until four days after the piece arrived in France. It left me and my colleagues wondering what on earth was going on and taking so long.Finally, on Wednesday, August 5, 2015, it was time to reveal what they had found. An announcement was expected at 8 p.m. Paris time, from a French prosecutor, and then a statement from the Malaysian prime minister, Najib Razak. That was the plan, yet the Malaysians weren’t going for it. Ten minutes before the French were to present their findings, the prime minister spoke. From everything I have heard, the Malaysians were determined that because this was their plane and their investigation, it was their right to speak first. Here is the crucial part of Razak’s statement:An international team of experts have conclusively confirmed that the aircraft debris found on Reunion Island is indeed from MH370. We now have physical evidence that, as I announced on 24th March last year, flight MH370 tragically ended in the southern Indian Ocean.Within minutes of the prime minister’s statement, the deputy prosecutor in France, Serge Mackowiak, held his news conference. We waited for a similar announcement of “conclusiveness.” It never came.What was a cut-and-dried conclusion for the Malaysians was a matter of “strong presumption” for the French.The prosecutor said that Malaysia Airlines representatives had seen specific similarities that linked the flaperon to the plane. But he didn’t say what they were. No one mentioned the presence of a serial number, which would seem to be the only conclusive proof of its origins.This was a shambles. The first time potentially hard evidence of the plane is found and the authorities managed to make a complete mess of it by differing in their wording. It beggars belief that something like this was able to happen.The families, scattered around the world, had been given an early warning of a few moments about the announcement. Some received it by text message, others by email, while luckier ones got a phone call from Malaysian embassy officials. They were given the prime minister’s version of the announcement: This flaperon was part of the plane. The plane went down in the southern Indian Ocean. Yet all of a sudden we in the media were questioning this conclusion. Not surprisingly, the families of the Chinese victims were having nothing of it. Soon they were out on the streets, protesting in front of the Malaysian embassy in Beijing.Now that the French authorities had said with “certainty” that the flaperon was from MH370, one key question had been definitively answered: the plane had indeed gone down somewhere in the southern Indian Ocean. Many of the more fanciful theories about the disappearance, including the ones about landing on Diego Garcia or in the Maldives, could now be put to rest. (The conspiracy theorists will never let up, and will claim the flaperon was planted by the Chinese, Americans, or someone else who shot down the plane.)An in-depth examination of the part will probably reveal how and when it separated from the aircraft, and whether this occurred in flight or as the plane hit the water. What the flaperon will not reveal is the exact location where the plane went down. This was confirmed by the ATSB in its report published in December 2015: “While this debris find is consistent with the current search area it does not provide sufficient information to refine it.”5 It seems the flaperon won’t reveal the secret of where the plane is.Nor will the flaperon reveal what happened at 1:19 after “Good night Malaysian Three Seven Zero.” Unless there was an explosion (almost certainly there wasn’t) and residue is found (highly unlikely after all this time), the only information that the piece can possibly yield will be how it separated from the aircraft.After an accident, finding the plane is essential. Of course, the recovery of bodies must be a top priority of the airline. But to discover what happened, and how to prevent its happening again, it is also necessary to retrieve, and to analyze the contents of, the black-box recorders. MH370 rightly created huge concern among both travelers and the aviation industry. Time and again on various shows, as I explained the difficulty of the search, anchors would look incredulous and ask the same question: “If we can find the location of our lost iPhones easily online, how come a modern jetliner could just disappear without a trace?” Every day people are using ordinary technology to find something as small and commonplace as a cell phone. Yet in the case of MH370, tens of millions of dollars were being spent during months of searching the deep ocean in appalling conditions, and no one could find something as large as a 777, which costs $250 million! Months after it disappeared, we had no certainty where the plane had flown, or where on the ocean bed it lay.To track a plane with certainty, air traffic control must know where it is at all times, even when the plane’s communications equipment has been switched off, disabled, or has failed. The goal must be to receive as much information as possible from the aircraft while it is still flying. Looking at MH370, I can trace all the problems back to what happened on the night when the 777 had been able to evade the most sophisticated air traffic technology. The plane’s transponders had been switched off, the ACARS system was disabled, and there were no radio signals. The plane had “gone silent.” It was able to continue flying without anyone noticing partly because of terrible human errors made by air traffic controllers and radar operators. But, even discounting these initial mistakes, it was the long, seven-hour flight over the southern Indian Ocean that turned an incident in Southeast Asia into the world’s biggest aviation mystery. It is only stating the obvious to say that surely the technology should be put in place so that no plane can fly for so long, anywhere in the world, without air traffic control knowing its whereabouts. The public has rightly said it’s a disgrace, and the industry has to make sure it can never happen again.What is galling about MH370 is that this was not the first occasion when a major jetliner went missing and it took several years to find it. The industry had had to cope with some of the very same issues five years before, in June of 2009, when Air France 447 went missing over the South Atlantic. By now you will recall that this was the A330 that had a problem with speed indicator pitot tubes. The pilots flew the aircraft into a stall and it crashed.No radar was tracking Air France 447 when the crash happened, and no air traffic control center was following it in real time. Most fliers are amazed to learn that planes are not always tracked by radar when they are in the air, crossing the globe. Air traffic control radar constantly monitors the airspace over landmasses like Europe or the United States, where the sheer number of planes in the sky demands full coverage. Any plane that deviates from its flight plan is quickly noticed. With Germanwings 8501, only three minutes and fifty-three seconds passed after Andreas Lubitz initiated the unauthorized descent over the French Alps before the air traffic controllers were calling him on the radio demanding an explanation (and some would say even this was too slow). During the next ten minutes, until the plane hit the mountains, fourteen additional radio calls from four different sources attempted to contact the pilots. Suffice it to say, over most stretches of populated land, air traffic control responses are typically swift.There are, however, large parts of the globe where no radar exists, including the airspace over the world’s oceans. Radar coverage requires ground-based facilities. At sea, both the distances and the costs involved mean it is neither practical nor reasonable to build floating sites for oceanic radar.Of course, the absence of radar doesn’t mean that planes aren’t being supervised as they cross the oceans. Consider the thousands of aircraft that cross the Atlantic each day between North America and Europe. As the plane travels over water, traditional radar coverage ends about 250 miles after they leave behind the Canadian or Irish coast. Radar doesn’t return until they are within similar range of land on the other side. Instead there is a complicated system of “tracks” where planes fly specific east- and westbound airways, which change daily with the changes in the jet stream. The pilots are given definite times when they must join the track to begin their oceanic crossing. The planes are spaced out, roughly ten minutes apart, and this long chain of aircraft moves through the sky. Throughout the journey they communicate their position regularly, using high-frequency radios or, more usually today, satellite-based systems. A similar track method called PACOTS is used across the North Pacific between the US and Asia. If tracks aren’t being used, then planes are directed to waypoints along standard airways. Again, the aircraft regularly reports its position so air traffic control can safely space out the planes.Air France 447 was out of Brazil’s radar coverage and had just passed over waypoint ORARO, heading for waypoint TASIL. Fortunately, the plane’s ACARS system was programmed to send its location automatically every ten minutes. Five minutes had elapsed between the last transmission and the crash into the water. After calculating the maximum distance AF447 could have traveled in those five minutes, the investigators came up with a search area of forty nautical miles, covering seventeen thousand square kilometers. It took several days before the first floating debris was spotted. In the end, AF447 was found just 6.5 miles from the last known position of the flight and searchers were able to retrieve the black box.I still believe they will find it. I say this not out of some simplistic view that missing planes are always found, but because the plane must be found; the vanishing of such a large aircraft is simply not acceptable. There are more than 1,200 of the 777 family of planes flying around the world today.After the search teams have finished covering the 46,000 square miles (120,000 square kilometers) currently designated as the most probable place where the plane went down, if nothing has been found there, the whole matter becomes much more problematic. The Malaysians and the Australians have said they will stop searching at this point, because in the absence of any new evidence of where to look, increasing the zone would cease to be feasible. They can’t search the entire length of the seventh arc.The search must somehow continue. That is what I really mean when I say, “They will find the plane, they must.” There can be no temptation to consign this to the history books as an aviation mystery that was too difficult to solve. If the searchers find nothing in their search, then they need to go back to square one. This will involve questioning everything that they have believed to be true and seeing if it remains valid. The inquiry should open its doors and its minds to other experts who may have a different perspective. There has been much criticism of the tight-fisted way information has been held, and there are independent experts who might have had something to contribute who have been shut out of the investigation.All of this is in the future. At the time of this writing, there is still more ocean to be searched. So far they have spent less than the list price of a single brand-new 777-300 searching for MH370. In the big scheme of aviation, I think the lives of 239 people, the confidence in 1,200 flying aircraft, and the reputation of the industry demand that yes, they find it. They must.Update April 19, 2016Two pieces of debris that washed up on African shores are "almost certainly" from the missing Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777-200ER that was operating the fateful MH370 flight.The first piece of debris, in South Africa, was initially identified as a segment from a 777 flap fairing panel by the presence of a stenciled part number. Although the stenciling did not match that used by Boeing, it was consistent with stencils used by Malaysia Airlines on its 777s, including the missing aircraft – 9M-MRO.The second part, in Mozambique, was also identified from a ‘No step’ stenciling, which again corresponded with Malaysian Airlines’ stencils but not those originally used by Boeing. The piece is part of the aircraft’s horizontal stabiliser.ATSB outlines analysis process for MH370 debrisAnd Here Come More Conspiracy Stories: May 3, 2016More than two years after it disappeared, the mystery of what happened to Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 continues to baffle the world. Wild rumours continue to circulate about the fate of the Malaysian Airlines jet.From the moment news broke that the Boeing 777 had gone missing, conspiracy theorists have given their explanations for both the disappearance and the investigators' failure to crack the mystery.North Korea? Vladimir Putin? The US military? Fake debris? Life Insurance scam? China?MH370 conspiracy theories: What happened to the Boeing 777?Update: May 12, 2016The Australian Transport Safety Bureau has identified two more pieces of debris recovered off the African coast as most likely coming from the Boeing 777-200ER that was operating Malaysia Airlines flight MH370.In an update report, the Bureau says that the two pieces were found independently at beaches in Mossel Bay, South Africa on 22 March, and Rodrigues Island in Mauritius on 30 March.Both pieces were sent to Canberra for analysis, following a request from the Malaysian government, and were handled in accordance with ICAO practice, as per two other pieces that the ATSB previously identified.‘Part 3’ was identified as a segment from an engine cowling due to the Rolls-Royce stenciling, and it conformed to applicable drawings from Boeing as being from a 777.Although the stencil was not consistent with that originally used by the manufacturer, it did conform with the one used by Malaysia Airlines on its 777s. Nonetheless, the Bureau says that there were no identifiers tracing it specifically to the missing jet, which was registered 9M-MRO.The other part, labelled ‘Part 4’ was identified as part of the R1 door assembly from a Malaysia Airlines 777. Specifically, a piano hinge attached to it was consistent with that used on a table hinge support, and the trim line was consistent with other aircraft.“There were no identifiers on the panel segment that were unique to 9M-MRO, however the pattern, colour and texture of the laminate was only specified by MAB for use on Boeing 747 and 777 aircraft. There is no record of the laminate being used by any other Boeing 777 customer,” the ATSB says.Although marine ecology analysis is continuing, the Bureau says that both parts are “almost certainly” from the missing 777. It also came to the same conclusion on the two other parts that were previously examined.ATSB identifies two more parts from MH370 jetUpdate, May 14, 2016Terrible, terrible news, if true.“We know the plane is in the southern Indian Ocean. Generally, airline pilots and other genuine aviation experts believe captain Zaharie Shah hijacked his own Boeing 777 in a planned suicide mission.Self-appointed armchair experts are often referred to as “aviation experts” by broadcasters, rather than the aviation consultants they actually are. Such people express opinions that may sound plausible to the non-pilot fraternity but are often rubbish.This search appears to have been conducted in the wrong area, based on the Australian Transport Safety Bureau unresponsive pilot scenario. Yet we know from the National Geographic recent Air Crash Investigations documentary, which held Shah responsible, that only three minutes elapsed from when he said goodnight to Kuala Lumpur air traffic control to when he disappeared electronically and turned southwest.If there was no pilot involvement the aircraft just would have flown itself to the programmed destination of Beijing. It was still under control 90 minutes later when it turned south just north of Sumatra.If, as generally believed, Shah was trying to hide the aircraft in as remote a location as possible to hide his crime then he would endeavour to fly as far as possible before the fuel ran out. As an experienced Boeing 777 captain, this is how I would manage this. Fly at long-range cruise speed mach 0.83 at as high an altitude as possible for maximum range. As the first engine flamed out due to fuel starvation I would start a slow-speed descent at 220 knots indicated airspeed with the second engine at idle. Just before second engine flame-out, I would select flap while still having hydraulic pressure to ensure my sea impact speed would not be so severe as to cause massive amounts of debris. Passing 5000 feet and flying on limited flight control hydraulic pressure from the automatically deployed air driven generator I would turn into wind and try to judge a ditching at low speed so that the aircraft would not break up into pieces. This speed would be still in the order of 250km/h or greater.I recently was well out to sea and observed how big the sea state can be, with very large waves in a 50km/h wind. In the latitudes south of 40 degrees the winds and sea state is even greater.Some pieces of debris — confirmed as coming from MH370 — have been turning up. The first was a right flaperon that I suspect was due to the right engine being shorn off, as they are designed to do, in a heavy impact with the sea.Later an associated piece turned up, also from the area immediately behind the right engine. And then a piece from the horizontal stabiliser (tailplane) leading edge, which also would support the shearing off of the right engine. The weakest part of the fuselage is at the juncture of the body and the wing. It appears to me that during the ditching the aircraft broke at this juncture and this is generally, depending on the seating configuration, where the partition between business class and economy occurs, so some panelling was dislodged.All this does not answer the question of why the ATSB did not listen to experts who would have placed the search area at least 400km farther south and west. That is why MH370 has not been found.”Byron Bailey, a veteran commercial pilot with more than 45 years’ experience and 26,000 flying hours, is a former RAAF fighter pilot and trainer, and was a senior captain with Emirates for 15 years, during which he flew the same model Boeing 777 passenger jet as Malaysia Airlines MH370.Debris confirms MH370 crash zone in Indian Ocean

Welcome to the year when your patience finally pays off. The movies 2020 is offering have us almost hyperventilating – mostly because it feels like we’ve been waiting forever for many of them to land in theaters. We’re finally getting Bond 25, with director Cary Fukunaga taking over for once-attached Danny Boyle, and Daniel Craig returning (for one last time?). Plus, there are long-awaited follow-ups to Bad Boys and Legally Blonde, and we’re revisiting two ’80s classics with Top Gun: Maverick and The Shining sequel Doctor Sleepboth opening in 2020. Plus, Wonder Woman returns in Wonder Woman 1984. It’s not all sequels and reboots though, and if you’re a musical fan, you’re in for a treat, with Lin-Manuel Miranda’s In the Heights coming to the big screen, courtesy of Crazy Rich Asians director Jon M. Chu, and Miranda penning the original animated musical feature, Vivo, for Sony. It’s never too early to get excited about movies, so start marking these titles in your calendar. [Updated on 5/7.]Jan-Mar | Apr-June | July-Sep | Oct-DecThe Best Movies of 2018 | The Most Anticipated Movies of 2019(Photo by © Columbia Pictures, @ Warner Bros., @ Columbia Pictures)JANUARYGrudge (2020)Directed by: Nicolas PesceStarring: Andrea Riseborough, Betty Gilpin, John Cho, Demian Bichir, Lin ShayeOpening on: January 3, 2020A remake of the American remake of the Japanese horror favorite, Grudge once again focuses on a vengeful ghost with a long memory. Critical darling Andrea Riseborough stars, and director Nicolas Pesce has some form: critics called his The Eyes of My Mother a haunting slasher.Just Mercy (2020)Directed by: Destin Daniel CrettonStarring: Michael B. Jordan, Brie LarsonOpening on: January 17, 2020Michael B. Jordan stars opposite Brie Larson in Just Mercy, about Civil Rights defense attorney Bryan Stephenson’s experiences in his case to free a death-row inmate. Jordan and Larson are white hot right now, and director Cretton has serious form when working with the Captain Marvel actress – their Short Term 12 is Certified Fresh at 98% on the Tomatometer.Bad Boys for Life (2020)Directed by: Adil El Arbi, Bilall FallahStarring: Will Smith, Martin LawrenceOpening on: January 17, 2020Bad Boys and Bad Boys II may both be Rotten, but they live in the hearts of many action fans as exemplary buddy-cop flicks, and both have Audience Scores of 78%. While original director Michael Bay is not coming back for Bad Boys for Life, producer Jerry Bruckheimer is overseeing the film, and we have confidence that directors Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah of Black and Gangsta will match his signature style and pace.The Voyage of Doctor Dolittle (2020)Directed by: Stephen GaghanStarring: Robert Downey Jr., Michael Sheen, Antonio Banderas, Tom Holland, Selena Gomez, Marion Cotillard, John CenaOpening on: January 17, 2020After a pair of poorly received films starring Eddie Murphy, Robert Downey Jr. is ready to take up the mantle of Doctor Dolittle in a new screen adaptation directed by Stephen Gaghan (Gold, Syriana). This film will be based more on the second book by author Hugh Lofting, and it will co-star Antonio Banderas and Michael Sheen, with the voices of Tom Holland, Marion Cotillard, Selena Gomez, John Cena, Emma Thompson, and more.FEBRUARYBirds of Prey (And the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn) (2020)Directed by: Cathy YanStarring: Margot Robbie, Jurnee Smollett-Ball, Mary Elizabeth WinsteadOpening on: February 7, 2020We last saw Margot Robbie’s wily Harley Quinn get in all kinds of trouble in Suicide Squad. What happens when she joins Birds of Prey, DC’s all-ladies team of adventurers? Sheer. Unadulterated. Mayhem. Along for the ride will be Jurnee Smollett-Bell and Mary Elizabeth Winstead, who were cast as Black Canary and Huntress, respectively, in September, and Rosie Perez, playing Renee Montoya. The will face off against Ewan McGregor as the Black Mask.Peter Rabbit 2 (2020)Directed by: Will GluckStarring: TBDOpening on: February 7, 2020First the garden, then the world. The plot for this sequel to the surprise hit loosely based on the work of Beatrix Potter is still under lock and key, but we’re sure it will involve James Corden’s cheeky rabbit causing all sorts of PG-rated trouble. We do not expect any blackberries to be involved, however.Legally Blonde 3 (2020)Directed by: TBDStarring: Reese WitherspoonOpening on: February 14, 2020It’s been 15 years since we last saw Elle Woods (Reese Witherspoon) in Legally Blonde 2: Red, White, and Blonde, and, like, why wouldn’t we want to see her again?! It’s been some time since Oscar winner Witherspoon has had a hit movie comedy, but if you told us this was gonna be a smash we wouldn’t object.Untitled Kingsman MovieDirected by: Patrick OsborneStarring: TBDOpening on: February 14, 2020Presented by Blue Sky Studios, makers of such hits as The Peanuts Movie and Ferdinand, comes Nimona, a family fantasy based on the web-comic of the same name by Noelle Stevenson. Nimona is shapeshifting thief who teams up with the equally villainous Lord Blackheart to prove that maybe the good guys aren’t so good after all.Sonic the Hedgehog (2020)Directed by: Jeff FowlerStarring: James Marsden, Jim Carrey, Tika SumpterOpening on: February 14, 2020Will this live-action/animation hybrid break the dreaded video game adaptation curse? James Marsden, who’s signed on to star alongside Southside With You‘s Tika Sumpter, will be hoping so. Fan reaction to the first trailer saw the filmmaker promising to redesign the central hero – which led to a push back from its original 2019 release date – but on the plus side, those same fans were all about Jim Carrey as villain, Dr. Robotnik.Bloodshot (2020)Directed by: Dave WilsonStarring: Vin Diesel, Eiza Gonzalez, Sam HeughanOpening on: February 21, 2020Who is Bloodshot? If the Valiant Comics assassin’s relaunch series was any indication, that is the big question. An unstoppable super-soldier powered by nanomachines, Bloodshot’s past is a mystery to him, and he’s on a mission to find out who he is and who – or what – is controlling him. With Vin Diesel as the titular character, expect a heavy side of testosterone with this slice of sci-fi.(Photo by © 20th Century Fox Film Corp., © Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures, @ Universal Studios)MARCHMulan (2020)Directed by: Niki CaroStarring: Yifei Liu, Jet Li, Donnie YenOpening on: March 27, 2020Following Disney’s live-action remake trend comes Mulan, directed by Niki Caro of Whale Rider and North Country fame. Featuring Chinese star Liu Yifei as the titular character and a host of other Chinese legends like Donnie Yen, Gong Li, and Jet Li, this one is poised to conquer the global box office and – if it taps into the animated original’s magic – our hearts.APRILCyborg (2020)Directed by: TBDStarring: Ray FisherOpening on: April 3, 2020Despite being part machine, Cyborg was one of the most human elements of 2017’s Justice League. We’re jacked to see how DC evolves his character and pits him against some of the world’s deadliest technological terrors (please be Metallo, please be Metallo, please be Metallo). While there’s a lot of love for Ray Fisher, and the movie has been in development since 2014, some are skeptical it will move forward given that Warner Bros. has not committed to a writer or director.The New Mutants (2020)Directed by: Josh BooneStarring: Anya Taylor-Joy, Maisie Williams, Charlie Heaton, Alice BragaOpening on: April 3, 2020The Fault in Our Stars director Josh Boone collects some of today’s hottest young stars — including Split’s Anya Taylor-Joy, Game of Thrones’ Maisie Williams, and Stranger Things’ Charlie Heaton — to play next-generation X-Men from Marvel’s comic book series of the same name. But the New Mutants’ dark path is riddled with horrors as they discover their abilities while imprisoned in a secret facility.Bond 25 (2020)Directed by: Cary FukunagaStarring: Daniel CraigOpening on: April 8, 2020It’s hard to believe this is only the 25th James Bond movie. Danny Boyle had been on board to direct for the special occasion, but left the project in August 2018 due to those infamous “creative differences.” A month later, it was announced that True Detective and Manic creator Cary Fukunaga would take the reins. Given his track record – which includes Certified Fresh works like Jane Eyre and Beasts of No Nation – fans breathed a sigh of relief when the announcement was made. We also now know that the script is getting a rewrite courtesy of The Bourne Ultimatum screenwriter and frequent Steven Soderbergh collaborator Scott Z. Burns.Trolls World Tour (Trolls 2) (2020)Directed by: Walt Dohrn, David P. SmithStarring: Anna Kendrick, Jamie Dornan, Sam RockwellOpening on: April 17, 2020After saving their colors and learning the true value of happiness in the Certified Fresh Trolls, the high-haired crew returns for another groovy adventure with Anna Kendrick again starring as Queen Poppy. She will be joined by a star-studded cast including Sam Rockwell, Chance the Rapper, Anthony Ramos, Karan Soni, Flula Borg, and Jamie Dornan.(Photo by © Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures, @ Universal Studios, @ Warner Bros. )MAYGreyhound (2020)Directed by: Aaron SchneiderStarring: Tom Hanks, Elisabeth Shue, Stephen Graham, Lee NorrisOpening on: May 8, 2020Tom Hanks is no stranger to WWII movies (see: Saving Private Ryan), and he’ll return to the theater of war to command the naval ship Greyhound, which was pursued by German U-boats across the Atlantic Ocean along with 36 other Allied ships. Director Aaron Schneider (Get Low) won an Oscar for Best Live Action Short back in 2003.Barbie (2020)Directed by: TBDStarring: Margot Robbie (in talks)Opening on: May 8, 2020“She’s a Barbie girl, in her Barbie World” – but not for long. When Barbie is exiled from “Barbieland” for not being perfect enough, she has to make it on her own in the real world. At least that was the synopsis of this long-in-development project before it recently moved studios from Sony to Warner Bros. Anne Hathaway and Amy Schumer had been attached at various points, but the latest news is that Margot Robbie is considering the lead role and producing the film through her company LuckyChap. The release date of May 8 was set by Sony, so expect that to move, too.A Quiet Place 2 (2020)Directed by: John KrasinskiStarring: Emily bluntOpening on: May 15, 2020Who was lighting those fires we saw in the distance in the original A Quiet Place? We may just find out in the sequel, which it was announced in October 2018 that John Krasinski would be writing. We later learned Krasinski would also return to direct, and that Emily Blunt would also be reprising her role from the first film.Fast and Furious 9 (2020)Directed by: Justin LinStarring: Vin Diesel, Lucas Black, Tyrese GibsonOpening on: May 22, 2020It’s full-throttle and pedal to the metal for the Toretto crime/adventure/anti-terrorism/what-even-are-they family yet again. Director Justin Lin was the man to turn the franchise around, delivering the series’ first Fresh entry on his third try with 2011’s Fast Five (Certified Fresh at 73%); since then, every Fast movie has landed on the red end of the Tomatometer. If you can’t wait for 2020 to see some bonkers car-based set pieces, check out Fast spinoff Hobbes and Shaw in 2019.Godzilla vs. Kong (2020)Directed by: Adam WingardStarring: Millie Bobby Brown, Kyle ChandlerOpening on: May 22, 2020It’s the showdown we’ve been waiting for since 2014’s Godzilla. Director Adam Wingard – who has proven he knows how to provide the thrills with The Guest and You’re Next – helms this climactic entry in Warner Bros.’ MonsterVerse series, which continues in 2019 with Godzilla: King of the Monsters. Who will win when the giant ape takes on the king? Kong’s got the fighting skills, but Godzilla’s got reach, especially with his atomic breath.Artemis Fowl (2020)Directed by: Kenneth BranaghStarring: Judi Dench, Josh GadOpening on: May 29, 2019Director Kenneth Branagh and stars Judi Dench and Josh Gad, who all worked together on last year’s Murder on the Orient Express, reunite for this adaptation of the popular fantasy book series that centers on a young criminal mastermind who kidnaps a fairy in hopes of ransoming her to an evil pixie in exchange for his father.JUNEUntitled Ghostbusters Sequel (2020)Directed by: Jason ReitmanStarring: TBDOpening on: TBDAccording to Entertainment Weekly, Jason Reitman will be directing a sequel to the original Ghostbusters franchise, unrelated to the all-female reboot directed by Paul Feig in 2016. The original 1984 Ghostbusters is one of the most beloved comedies of the decade, and it was directed by Reitman’s father, Ivan Reitman. We don’t know much else about the film as of now, like what the story will entail, or whether the original stars (minus the late Harold Ramis) will return. However, Reitman did hint at some new characters, so we’ll have to wait and see as more information comes to light.Wonder Woman 1984 (2020)Directed by: Patty JenkinsStarring: Gal Gadot, Chris Pine, Kristen WiigOpening on: June 5, 2020As villain Cheetah, Bridemaids’ Kristen Wiig climbs aboard the Wonder Woman sequel, which sees Gal Gadot returning to her Amazon-princess role that catapulted the first film to a $412.5 million box office, a Certified Fresh 92% Tomatometer score, and the No. 2 spot in our list of the 64 Best Superhero Movies of All Time. The action is set during the Cold War in the ’80s and finds Chris Pine reappearing as Wonder Woman’s love interest Steve Trevor, despite his apparent death in the first film.Red Notice (2020)Directed by: Rawson Marshall ThurberStarring: Gal Gadot, Dwayne JohnsonOpening on: June 12, 2020Dwayne Johnson teams up with writer-director Rawson Marshall Thurber for the third time (the pair previously collaborated on Central Intelligence and Skyscraper) for this film which is said to be about an Interpol agent chasing after the world’s most-wanted art thief. (An Interpol “Red Notice” is kind of like an international arrest warrant.) Gal Gadot has signed on to the project, but it’s not yet known who she will play.In The Heights (2020)Directed by: Jon M. ChuStarring: TBDOpening on: June 16, 2020Crazy Rich Asians director Jon M. Chu adapts Lin-Manuel Miranda’s breakout musical, In the Heights. The show, which kicked off the Hamilton creator’s career, won four Tony Awards in 2008, including Best Musical and Best Original Score. Chu demonstrated real skill with spectacle in Crazy Rich Asians, and the new movie shares similar themes of reclaiming one’s heritage – it follows the stories of several characters in New York’s heavily Latino neighborhood, Washington Heights, over three days.Top Gun: Maverick (2020)Directed by: Joseph KosinskiStarring: Tom Cruise, Jennifer Connelly, Jon Hamm, Val Kilmer, Jay Ellis, Miles Teller, Thomasin McKenzie, Monica BarbaroOpening on: June 26, 2020Great balls of fire, we’re getting a Top Gunsequel after 31 years. Not a whole lot is known about the movie, except that the filmmakers have recruited a cast of some of the most in-demand young actors in Hollywood – including Miles Teller, who will play Goose’s son, and Leave No Trace‘s Thomasin McKenzie – and that Val Kilmer is officially back as Iceman.JULYMinions 2 (2020)Directed by: Kyle Balda, Brad AbelsonStarring: Pierre CoffinOpening on: July 3, 2020We last saw the minions wreaking havoc in 1960s England before they met up with a young Gru. Perhaps their next adventure will be their first with him. Whatever shenanigans the yellow ones, voiced by Pierre Coffin, get up to, expect them to be at it again for Minions 3 and Minions 4 and so on: the first Minions movie made more than $1.5 billion globally and helped the Despicable Me franchise become the highest grossing animated franchise of all time.Untitled Christopher Nolan ProjectDirected by: Christopher NolanStarring: John David WashingtonOpening on: July 17, 2020On January 25, 2019, Warner Bros. made the announcement that they had set a release date for Christopher Nolan’s next film. Few details were shared in that initial announcement, aside from the fact that the movie will also see an IMAX release and it’s being considered an “event film,” and a March 5 report by Production Weekly apparently erroneously announced that the film would be a “romantic thriller” along the lines of North by Northwest meets Inception. On March 19, it was reported that BlackKklansman star John David Washington had been cast in the film.Jungle Cruise (2020)Director: Jaume Collet-SerraStarring: Dwayne Johnson, Emily Blunt, Édgar Ramírez, Jack Whitehall, Jesse Plemons, Paul GiamattiOpening on: July 24, 2020Following the path that Pirates of the Caribbean charted so successfully, this new film (franchise?) is based on the Disney theme park attraction of the same name. Dwayne Johnson and Emily Blunt star, respectively, as a riverboat captain and a scientist on a hunt for a magical cure in this Depression-era action adventure. Comedian Jack Whitehall also joins in the fun, playing Blunt’s character’s brother. Collet-Serra has had a string of action-thriller hits working with Liam Neeson (Commuter, Non-Stop, Unknown), so there’s a chance this one could be slightly darker than anticipated. The movie was originally slated to premiere in 2019, but was bumped in fall 2018.Green Lantern Corps (2020)Directed by: TBDStarring: TBDOpening on: July 24, 2020In brightest day, in blackest night, a new Green Lantern movie is in our sights! Rumored to involve characters like John Stewart, Guy Gardner, and, of course, Hal Jordan, Green Lantern Corps is reportedly more of a space opera than 2011’s Green Lantern. There has been little movement on the project in recent years, but we’ll be keeping it on the list until we hear if it’s officially cancelled or delayed. We’re that excited for a second try at this world.(Photo by @ Warner Bros., ©20th Century Fox Film Corp.)OCTOBERBios (2020)Directed by: Miguel SapochnikStarring: Tom HanksOpening on: October 2, 2020Tom Hanks is back, breaking our hearts again. Here he plays a sickly inventor — and the last human left on a post-apocalyptic earth — who creates a robot to protect the life of his dog when he dies and keep them both company while he’s alive. Will said robot be as lovable as, say, Wilson? Time will tell. Director Miguel Sapochnik boasts an epic resume, particularly in TV – if you need any convincing on this one, just know he directed Game ofThrones‘ “Battle of the Bastards” episode.Death on the Nile (2020)Directed by: Kenneth BranaghStarring: Kenneth BranaghOpening on: October 9, 2020Kenneth Branagh will return as detective Hercule Poirot following the surprise success of 2017’s Murder on the Orient Express, which Branagh also directed. No word on who will be cast as the sailing suspects in this latest Agatha Christie adaption.Micronauts (2020)Directed by: TBDStarring: TBDOpening on: October 16, 2020Micronauts are a group of robotic characters who are closer than we think – they exist in the microscopic space around us, and they’re constantly battling for control. Although there was a Marvel comic-book series based on the Micronauts toyline, the new movie will be entirely original, and with J.J. Abrams’ Bad Robot producing, we have faith the story is in good hands. The characters are said to be part of Hasbro’s shared continuity movie universe, which has been reported to include G.I. Joe and M.A.S.K.The Witches (2020)Directed by: Robert ZemeckisStarring: Anne HathawayOpening on: October 16, 2020Robert Zemeckis will direct this remake of Roald Dahl’s The Witches, which was first brought to the big screen by director Nicolas Roeg in 1990. Zemeckis has some big shoes to fill: the original tale of an annual convention of the world’s witches that is interrupted by an inquisitive young boy sits at 100% on the Tomatometer (and it’s opening sequence has been terrifying young kids for decades). Anne Hathaway, who will star as the Grand High Witch, has even bigger shoes to fill, though: Anjelica Huston’s performance as the world’s head witch has made the character one of the most memorable kids’ villains in cinema.NOVEMBERVivo (2020)Directed by: Kirk DeMiccoStarring: TBDOpening on: November 6, 2020Hamilton geeks rejoice: Lin-Manuel Miranda has written an entire animated musical. Miranda’s Vivo, a Sony Animated Pictures movie, centers on a monkey with a song in his heart who travels from Havana, Cuba to Miami, Florida to – so the plot descriptions say – “fulfill his destiny.” There are serious animation chops behind this one – it comes to us by The Croods director, Kirk DeMicco, and Miranda himself was responsible for a chunk of the music in Certified Fresh smash Moana.Ron's Gone Wrong (2020)Directed by: Alessandro Carloni, Jean-Philippe VineStarring: TBDOpening on: November 6, 2020Set in a world in which robots have become kids’ besties, Ron’s Gone Wrong focuses on one 11-year-old boy who finds his robo-friend is busted. His attempts to teach the busted bot some new tricks are set to draw big laughs, and maybe a few tears. The project has big animation talent behind it, including co-directors Alessandro Carloni (who directed Kung Fu Panda 3) and Jean-Philippe Vine (who worked on the Shaun the Sheep TV series and Pixar’s Inside Out).Rugrats (2020)Directed by: TBDStarring: TBDOpening on: November 13, 2020Little is known about the upcoming Rugratsmovie, save that it’s based on the classic ’90s Nicktoon, that it will be a combo of live-action and CGI, and that it will be a shot of nostalgia for all those former ’90s kids. Meanwhile, the series itself is being rebooted over at Nickelodeon, with the kids’ network putting in a 26-episode order for a Rugrats series with the creators of the original show – Arlene Klasky, Gábor Csupó, and Paul Germain – executive producing.Dune (2020)Directed by: Denis VilleneuveStarring: Timothée Chalamet, Josh Brolin, Rebecca Ferguson, Oscar Isaac, Javier Bardem, Jason Momoa, Dave Bautista, ZendayaOpening on: November 20, 2020Acclaimed director Denis Villeneuve takes on the massive challenge of re-adapting Frank Herbert’s sprawling sci-fi epic more than 30 years after David Lynch attempted the same and, according to many fans, fell short. At the very least, Villeneuve has assembled an impressive cast (just look at those names!) so it’s now up to him and his co-writers to fashion an engaging script from the daunting source material.Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them 3(2020)Directed by: David YatesStarring: Eddie RedmayneOpening on: November 20, 2020Newt Scamander’s (Eddie Redmayne) globetrotting adventures continue in Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them’s yet-to-be-named third installment. Our Divination spells predict the return of Dumbledore (Jude Law), Grindelwald (Johnny Depp), and more of the characters from the first two films. The movie is the third of five total planned Fantastic Beasts movies that are said to span, in total, a 19 year period.DECEMBERThe Croods 2 (2020)Directed by: Joel CrawfordStarring: Ryan Reynolds, Nicolas Cage, Emma StoneOpening on: December 23, 2020We don’t know if the creatures in The Croods were prehistorically accurate, but we do know the family adventure was prehysterical! (Sorry about that.) The whole family returns for the sequel, with Nicolas Cage, Emma Stone, Ryan Reynolds, Catherine Keener, and more reprising their roles. Original co-director Kirk DeMicco is off making Vivo (see November releases), and so first-time feature director Joel Crawford, a veteran story artist, takes the reins.Sherlock Holmes 3 (2020)Directed by: Guy Ritchie (rumor)Starring: Robert Downey Jr., Jude LawOpening on: December 25, 2020Guy Ritchie’s two takes on the world’s greatest detective might have been unorthodox, but they provided some pulse-pounding action and tapped into the chemistry between Robert Downey Jr.’s Holmes and Jude Law’s Watson (Sherlock Holmes sits at 71% on the Tomatometer, while sequel A Game of Shadows is almost Fresh at 59%). What criminal mastermind will Holmes next face? Charles Augustus Milverton? Eurus Holmes? Henry “Holy” Peter? That clue has yet to reveal itself.NO RELEASE DATEThe Creed of ViolenceDirected by: Todd FieldStarring: Daniel CraigOpening on: TBDWe don’t know much about this film yet, including its official release date, but we do know that Daniel Craig will be starring in a period film set in 1910 during the Mexican revolution as an assassin who sets out from Texas to stop a smuggling ring in Mexico. Todd Field, who earned accolades for smaller, more intimate dramas like In the Bedroom and Little Children, will direct.Credits ROTTEN TOMATOES

BEGIN ADDENDUMToday is October 15, 2016. When I wrote the answer below, some 10 months ago, many facts about Trump were not well known. Since then, much evidence of past misdeeds have come to light, and Trump has also repeatedly damned himself by his own words.So I’m updating my original answer:Trump is, in my not-so-humble opinion, a racist. Unequivocally.From Huffpost’s Here Are 13 Examples Of Donald Trump Being Racist:He attacked Muslim Gold Star parentsTrump’s retaliation against the parents of a Muslim U.S. Army officer who died while serving in the Iraq War was a clear low point in a campaign full of hateful rhetoric.Khizr Khan, the father of the late Army Captain Humayun Khan, spoke out against Trump’s bigoted rhetoric and disregard for civil liberties at the Democratic National Convention on July 28. It quickly became the most memorable moment of the convention.“Let me ask you, have you even read the U.S. Constitution?” Khan asked Trump before pulling a copy of the document from his jacket pocket and holding it up. “I will gladly lend you my copy,” he declared.Khan’s wife Ghazala Khan, who wears a Muslim head scarf, stood at his side during the speech but did not speak.In response to the devastating speech, Trump seized on Ghazala Khan’s silence to insinuate that she was forbidden from speaking due to the couple’s Islamic faith.“If you look at his wife, she was standing there. She had nothing to say. She probably, maybe she wasn’t allowed to have anything to say. You tell me,” Trump said in an interview with ABC News that first appeared on July 30.Ghazala Khan explained in an op-ed in the Washington Post the following day that she could not speak because of grief over her son.“Walking onto the convention stage, with a huge picture of my son behind me, I could hardly control myself. What mother could?” she wrote. “Donald Trump has children whom he loves. Does he really need to wonder why I did not speak?”He claimed a judge was biased because “he’s a Mexican”In May, Trump implied that Gonzalo Curiel, the federal judge presiding over a class action against the for-profit Trump University, could not fairly hear the case because of his Mexican heritage.“He’s a Mexican,” Trump told CNN of Curiel. “We’re building a wall between here and Mexico. The answer is, he is giving us very unfair rulings — rulings that people can’t even believe.”Curiel, it should be noted, is an American citizen who was born in Indiana. And as a prosecutor in the late 1990s, he went after Mexican drug cartels, making him a target for assassination by a Tijuana drug lord.Even members of Trump’s own party slammed the racist remarks.“Claiming a person can’t do their job because of their race is sort of like the textbook definition of a racist comment,” House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) said in a reaction to Trump’s comments, though he clarified that he still endorses the nominee.The comments against Curiel didn’t sit well with the American public either. According to a YouGov poll released in June, 51 percent of those surveyed agreed that Trump’s comments were not only wrong, but also racist.Fifty-seven percent of Americans think Trump was wrong to complain against the judge, while just 20 percent think he was right to do so.When asked whether he would trust a Muslim judge, in light of his proposed restrictions on Muslim immigration, Trump suggested that such a judge might not be fair to him either.The Justice Department sued his company ― twice ― for not renting to black peopleWhen Trump was serving as the president of his family’s real estate company, the Trump Management Corporation, in 1973, the Justice Department sued the company for alleged racial discrimination against black people looking to rent apartments in Brooklyn, Queens and Staten Island.The lawsuit charged that the company quoted different rental terms and conditions to black rental candidates than it did with white candidates, and that the company lied to black applicants about apartments not being available. Trump called those accusations “absolutely ridiculous” and sued the Justice Department for $100 million in damages for defamation.Without admitting wrongdoing, the Trump Management Corporation settled the original lawsuit two years later and promised not to discriminate against black people, Puerto Ricans or other minorities. Trump also agreed to send weekly vacancy lists for his 15,000 apartments to the New York Urban League, a civil rights group, and to allow the NYUL to present qualified applicants for vacancies in certain Trump properties.Just three years after that, the Justice Department sued the Trump Management Corporation again for allegedly discriminating against black applicants by telling them apartments weren’t available.In fact, discrimination against black people has been a pattern in his careerWorkers at Trump’s casinos in Atlantic City, New Jersey, have accused him of racism over the years. The New Jersey Casino Control Commission fined the Trump Plaza Hotel and Casino $200,000 in 1992 because managers would remove African-American card dealers at the request of a certain big-spending gambler. A state appeals court upheld the fine.The first-person account of at least one black Trump casino employee in Atlantic City suggests the racist practices were consistent with Trump’s personal behavior toward black workers.“When Donald and Ivana came to the casino, the bosses would order all the black people off the floor,” Kip Brown, a former employee at Trump’s Castle, told the New Yorker for a September article. “It was the eighties, I was a teen-ager, but I remember it: they put us all in the back.”Trump disparaged his black casino employees as “lazy” in vividly bigoted terms, according to a 1991 book by John O’Donnell, a former president of Trump Plaza Hotel and Casino.“And isn’t it funny. I’ve got black accountants at Trump Castle and Trump Plaza. Black guys counting my money! I hate it,” O’Donnell recalled Trump saying. “The only kind of people I want counting my money are short guys that wear yarmulkes every day.”“I think the guy is lazy,” Trump said of a black employee, according to O’Donnell. “And it’s probably not his fault because laziness is a trait in blacks. It really is, I believe that. It’s not anything they can control.”Trump has also faced charges of reneging on commitments to hire black people. In 1996, 20 African Americans in Indiana sued Trump for failing to honor a promise to hire mostly minority workers for a riverboat casino on Lake Michigan.He refused to condemn the white supremacists who are campaigning for himThree times in a row on Feb. 28, Trump sidestepped opportunities to renounce white nationalist and former KKK leader David Duke, who told his radio audience last week that voting for any candidate other than Trump is “really treason to your heritage.”When asked by CNN’s Jake Tapper if he would condemn Duke and say he didn’t want a vote from him or any other white supremacists, Trump claimed that he didn’t know anything about white supremacists or about Duke himself. When Tapper pressed him twice more, Trump said he couldn’t condemn a group he hadn’t yet researched.By Feb. 29, Trump was saying that in fact he does disavow Duke, and that the only reason he didn’t do so on CNN was because of a “lousy earpiece.” Video of the exchange, however, shows Trump responding quickly to Tapper’s questions with no apparent difficulty in hearing.It’s preposterous to think that Trump doesn’t know about white supremacist groups or their sometimes violent support of him. Reports of neo-Nazi groups rallying around Trump go back as far as August.His white supremacist fan club includes the Daily Stormer, a leading neo-Nazi news site; Richard Spencer, director of the National Policy Institute, which aims to promote the “heritage, identity, and future of European people”; Jared Taylor, editor of American Renaissance, a Virginia-based white nationalist magazine; Michael Hill, head of the League of the South, an Alabama-based white supremacist secessionist group; and Brad Griffin, a member of Hill’s League of the South and author of the popular white supremacist blog Hunter Wallace.A leader of the Virginia KKK who is backing Trump told a local TV reporter earlier this month, “The reason a lot of Klan members like Donald Trump is because a lot of what he believes, we believe in.”And most recently, the Trump campaign announced that one of its California primary delegates was William Johnson, chair of the white nationalist American Freedom Party. The Trump campaign subsequently said his inclusion was a mistake, and Johnson withdrew his name at their request.He questions whether President Obama was born in the United StatesLong before calling Mexican immigrants “criminals” and “rapists,” Trump was a leading proponent of “birtherism,” the racist conspiracy theory that President Barack Obama was not born in the United States and is thus an illegitimate president. Trump claimed in 2011 to have sent people to Hawaii to investigate whether Obama was really born there. He insisted at the time that the researchers “cannot believe what they are finding.”Obama ultimately got the better of Trump, releasing his long-form birth certificate and relentlessly mocking the real estate mogul about it at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner that year.But Trump continues to insinuate that the president was not born in the country.“I don’t know where he was born,” Trump said in a speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference on Saturday. (Again, for the record: He was born in Hawaii.)He treats racial groups as monolithsLike many racial instigators, Trump often answers accusations of bigotry by loudly protesting that he actually loves the group in question. But that’s just as uncomfortable to hear, because he’s still treating all the members of the group — all the individual human beings — as essentially the same and interchangeable. Language is telling, here: Virtually every time Trump mentions a minority group, he uses the definite article the, as in “the Hispanics,” “the Muslims” and “the blacks.”In that sense, Trump’s defensive explanations are of a piece with his slander of minorities. Both rely on essentializing racial and ethnic groups, blurring them into simple, monolithic entities, instead of acknowledging that there’s as much variety among Muslims and Latinos and black people as there is among white people.How did Trump respond to the outrage last year that followed his characterization of Mexican immigrants as criminals and rapists?“I’ll take jobs back from China, I’ll take jobs back from Japan,” Trump said during his visit to the U.S.-Mexican border in July. “The Hispanics are going to get those jobs, and they’re going to love Trump.”“The Hispanics are going to get those jobs, and they’re going to love Trump.”Donald Trump, July 2015How did Trump respond to critics of his proposal to ban Muslims from entering the U.S.?“I’m doing good for the Muslims,” Trump told CNN in December. “Many Muslim friends of mine are in agreement with me. They say, ‘Donald, you brought something up to the fore that is so brilliant and so fantastic.’”Not long before he called for a blanket ban on Muslims entering the country, Trump was proclaiming his affection for “the Muslims,” disagreeing with rival candidate Ben Carson’s claim in September that being a Muslim should disqualify someone from running for president.“I love the Muslims. I think they’re great people,” Trump said, insisting that he would be willing to name a Muslim to his presidential cabinet.How did Trump respond to the people who called him out for funding an investigation into whether Obama was born in the United States?“I have a great relationship with the blacks,” Trump said in April 2011. “I’ve always had a great relationship with the blacks.”Even when Trump has dropped the definite article “the,” his attempts at praising minority groups he has previously slandered have been offensive.Look no further than the infamous Cinco de Mayo taco bowl tweet.Donald J. Trump ✔@realDonaldTrumpHappy #CincoDeMayo! The best taco bowls are made in Trump Tower Grill. I love Hispanics! https://www.facebook.com/DonaldTrump/posts/10157008375200725:0 …Former Republican presidential candidate and Florida Gov. Jeb Bush (R) had a good breakdown of everything that was wrong with Trump’s comment.“It’s like eating a watermelon and saying ‘I love African-Americans,’” Bush quipped.He trashed Native Americans, tooIn 1993, when Trump wanted to open a casino in Bridgeport, Connecticut, that would compete with one owned by the Mashantucket Pequot Nation, a local Native American tribe, he told the House subcommittee on Native American Affairs that “they don’t look like Indians to me... They don’t look like Indians to Indians.”Trump then elaborated on those remarks, which were unearthed last year in the Hartford Courant, by saying the mafia had infiltrated Indian casinos.In the 1980s, Donald Trump was much younger, but just as racist as he is now.He encouraged the mob justice that resulted in the wrongful imprisonment of the Central Park FiveIn 1989, Trump took out full-page ads in four New York City-area newspapers calling for the return of the death penalty in New York and the expansion of police authority in response to the infamous case of a woman who was beaten and raped while jogging in Manhattan’s Central Park.“They should be forced to suffer and, when they kill, they should be executed for their crimes,” Trump wrote, referring to the Central Park attackers and other violent criminals. “I want to hate these murderers and I always will.”The public outrage over the Central Park jogger rape, at a time when the city was struggling with high crime, led to the wrongful conviction of five teenagers of color known as the Central Park Five.The men’s convictions were overturned in 2002, after they’d already spent years in prison, when DNA evidence showed they did not commit the crime. Today, their case is considered a cautionary tale about a politicized criminal justice process.Trump, however, still thinks the men are guilty.He condoned the beating of a Black Lives Matter protesterAt a November campaign rally in Alabama, Trump supporters physically attacked an African-American protester after the man began chanting “Black lives matter.” Video of the incident shows the assailants kicking the man after he has already fallen to the ground.The following day, Trump implied that the attackers were justified.“Maybe [the protester] should have been roughed up,” he mused. “It was absolutely disgusting what he was doing.”Trump’s dismissive attitude toward the protester is part of a larger, troubling pattern of instigating violence toward protesters at campaign events that has singled out people of color.One reason Trump may have exhibited special disdain for that particular demonstrator in November, however, is because he believes the entire Black Lives Matter movement lacks legitimate policy grievances. He alluded to these views in an interview with the New York Times magazine this week when he described Ferguson, Missouri, as one of the most dangerous places in America. The small St. Louis suburb is not even in the top 20 highest-crime municipalities in the country.He called supporters who beat up a homeless Latino man “passionate”Trump’s racial incitement has already inspired hate crimes. Two brothers arrested in Boston last summer for beating up a homeless Latino man cited Trump’s anti-immigrant message when explaining why they did it.“Donald Trump was right — all these illegals need to be deported,” one of the men reportedly told police officers.Trump did not even bother to distance himself from them. Instead, he suggested that the men were well-intentioned and had simply gotten carried away.“I will say that people who are following me are very passionate,” Trump said. “They love this country and they want this country to be great again. They are passionate.”He stereotyped Jews and shared an anti-Semitic meme created by white supremacistsWhen Trump addressed the Republican Jewish Coalition in December, he tried to relate to the crowd by invoking the stereotype of Jews as talented and cunning businesspeople.“I’m a negotiator, like you folks,” Trump told the crowd, touting his book The Art of the Deal.“Is there anyone who doesn’t renegotiate deals in this room?” Trump said. “Perhaps more than any room I’ve spoken to.”But that wasn’t even the most offensive thing Trump told his Jewish audience. He implied that he had little chance of earning the Jewish Republican group’s support, because his fealty could not be bought with campaign donations.“You’re not going to support me, because I don’t want your money,” he said. “You want to control your own politician.”Ironically, Trump has many close Jewish family members. His daughter Ivanka converted to Judaism in 2009 before marrying the real estate mogul Jared Kushner. Trump and Kushner raise their two children in an observant Jewish home.Then in July, Trump tweeted an anti-Semitic Hillary Clinton meme that featured a photo of her over a backdrop of $100 bills with a six-pointed Jewish Star of David next to her face.“Crooked Hillary - - Makes History!” he wrote in the tweet, which also read “Most Corrupt Candidate Ever” over the star.The holy symbol was co-opted by the Nazis during World War II when they forced Jews to sew it onto their clothing. Using the symbol over a pile of money is blatantly anti-Semitic and re-enforces hateful stereotypes of Jewish greed.But Trump insisted the image was harmless.“The sheriff’s badge ― which is available under Microsoft’s ‘shapes’ ― fit with the theme of corrupt Hillary and that is why I selected it,” he said in a statement.Mic, however, discovered that the the meme was actually created by white supremacists and could be found on a neo-Nazi forum more than a week before Trump shared it. Additionally, a watermark on the image leads to a Twitter account that regularly tweets racist, sexist political memes.He treats African-American supporters as tokens to dispel the idea he is racistAt a campaign appearance in California in June, Trump boasted that he had a black supporter in the crowd, saying “look at my African American over here.”“Look at him,” Trump continued. “Are you the greatest?”Trump went on to imply that the media conceals his appeal among African Americans by not covering the crowd more attentively.“We have tremendous African-American support,” he said. “The reason is I’m going to bring jobs back to our country.”In fact, Trump has the lowest level of African-American support of any Republican presidential nominee since 1948, according to FiveThirtyEight. As of the most recent polling, just 2 percent of black voters plan to vote for him ― fewer than the percentage who plan to vote for Green Party candidate Jill Stein or Libertarian Party nominee Gary Johnson.It’s may not be surprising that Trump has brought so much racial animus into the 2016 election cycle, given his family history. His father, Fred Trump, was the target of folk singer Woody Guthrie’s lyrics after Guthrie lived for two years in a building owned by Trump pere: “I suppose / Old Man Trump knows / Just how much / Racial hate / He stirred up / In the bloodpot of human hearts.”And last fall, a news report from 1927 surfaced on the site Boing Boing, revealing that Fred Trump was arrested that year following a KKK riot in Queens. It’s not clear exactly what the elder Trump was doing there or what role he may have played in the riot. Donald Trump, for his part, has categorically denied (except when he’s ambiguously denied) that anything of the sort ever happened.END ADDENDUMI don't think he actually is a racist, but I don't think it matters. What does matter, I think, is the psychological relationship between Trump and his followers. I'm not a trained psychologist, but I do think he is a textbook example of someone with a narcissistic personality disorder, also known as megalomania. Here are its signs (from Wikipedia):Narcissistic personality disorder is characterized by an over-inflated sense of self-importance, as well as dramatic, emotional behavior that is in the same category as antisocial and borderline personality disorders.In addition to these symptoms, the person may display arrogance, show superiority, and seek power.The symptoms of narcissistic personality disorder can be similar to the traits of individuals with strong self-esteem and confidence; differentiation occurs when the underlying psychological structures of these traits are considered pathological. Narcissists have such an elevated sense of self-worth that they value themselves as inherently better than others, when in reality they have a fragile self-esteem, cannot handle criticism, and often try to compensate for this inner fragility by belittling or disparaging others in an attempt to validate their own self-worth. Comments and criticisms about others are vicious from sufferers of NPD, in an attempt to boost their own poor self-esteem.Who are his supporters? They are almost exclusively white people who lack a good education and are anxious about the state of the country and their personal well-being and status as citizens.So you have an insecure man who craves personal validation speaking to groups of people who want their anxieties addressed.Trump needs people to cheer him on, so he experiments with different ways to present himself. He sees that the more outlandish his behavior, the more a certain group of people flock to him.Now all Trump needs is to bind these people to his stage persona. He does that by assuaging the crowd's anxieties with a simple, emotionally powerful theme: other people are the cause of our distress. Those people can come from any group: Mexicans, Moslems, liberals, you name it. By using scapegoats, Trump transforms anxiety into hatred. Hatred soothes anxiety by making one's emotions somebody else's fault.So, Trump gets psychological validation from the crowd, and the crowd gets its anxieties addressed. The circle is complete.And thus we find ourselves in the midst of a hurricane....